Pardoned January 6 rioter disrupts Seattle Diwali festival with anti-Hindu placards

Images

×

Visitors are immersed in the projections at an installation celebrating Diwali, the festival of lights at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai on November 6, 2026. (Photo by Indranil MUKHERJEE / AFP via Getty Images) newsweek.com

Two far-right activists disrupted 'Diwali: Lights of India', a free cultural festival at the Seattle Center Armory, on November 7, carrying American flags and placards reading 'Deport All Dot Heads' and 'Stop Hindu Replacement of Christians' in front of festivalgoers including children. One of them, 30-year-old Jake Lang, served four years in jail for crimes connected to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol before receiving a presidential pardon from Donald Trump on January 20, 2025. He has since sought the Republican nomination for a US Senate seat in Florida.

Footage shared online shows Lang and Thomas Allen, a pro-Trump livestreamer facing assault and probation-violation charges in Oregon over an alleged confrontation with a protester in Portland, confronting attendees before festivalgoers intervened and ushered them out. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who represents the Seattle district, called the display 'vile and racist' and said the community should feel safe to celebrate the holiday. Hindu advocacy groups also condemned the disruption. It remains unclear whether either man will face criminal charges, although Washington law defines malicious harassment — assault, property damage or threats motivated by a victim's race, religion or national origin — as a hate crime.

Lang has kept a full schedule since his pardon. In May he promoted a book-burning protest in Dearborn, Michigan, promising to burn LGBTQ books, the Quran and Hindi books. In February he was arrested after recording himself kicking an anti-ICE ice sculpture in Minnesota and now faces a first-degree property damage charge, with trial set for July. After the Seattle confrontation he posted photographs and blamed the Hindu community for Texas shifting toward the Democrats in the midterm elections.

The disruption came a day after Trump lit a traditional diya in the Oval Office to mark Diwali.